Chapter 22

Author's Note: Just a quick note, it has now been about three and a half years since the last chapter. I am going to start putting the dates at the beginning of the chapter when relevant.

82 AG

Ozai and Fire Lord Azulon walked side by side as they walked towards Azulon's rooms from the war room. Azulon was in a good mood, as he usually was after a war meeting that was full of good news. The war was going well in their favor, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, Ozai knew that Iroh was doing a good job on the war front. His letter to the war council had been full of good news on the Earth Kingdom front, and it was starting to seem like the war could be ending in their favor within a few years. Hearing the news had brought the familiar wave of jealousy in his stomach, he wished that he could be out on the front, just like Iroh, but his father would never allow it.

"Is there any news about Ursa?" Azulon asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at his son. "Is she pregnant?"

Ozai tensed up, he had been waiting for his father to ask about that, but he had hoped that he would have more time before he did.

"Not that I know of," he replied his voice even.

Azulon stopped walking and turned to his son. "It's been three years, Ozai and you have yet to have a child. Is there something wrong with the girl?"

Ozai sighed. He didn't want to have this conversation with his father, especially not after he had been praising Iroh during the war meeting. He just felt like his father was using this as another way to point out the way that he had failed, and the way that Iroh was superior to him. It set him on edge, as most conversations with his father did. Ozai didn't know what to make of Ursa's apparent inability to give him a child, and he certainly didn't want to talk about it with his father. The losses of her pregnancies had hurt him more than he ever wanted to admit out loud.

"I don't know, father," he replied.

Azulon started to walk again and two servants pulled the door open to his rooms. Ozai followed him in, glad that they could at least have this conversation in private, rather than in the hallways where you never knew who was listening. As frustrating as it was that they had yet to have a child, he didn't want Ursa to hear talk of this conversation. He knew that it would hurt her, that she was already incredibly self-conscious of the fact that she had been unable to successfully carry a child to term.

Azulon lowered himself down at his desk and Ozai sat down across from him. A servant came over and poured them glasses of whiskey and Ozai gladly took a drink from his glass. He needed the alcohol to get through this conversation with his father. Azulon took a sip of his own glass and gestured for the servant to leave the room before he opened his desk drawer and rustled around before he pulled out a piece of parchment and handed it over to Ozai.

"I received this letter from General Uzonu yesterday," Azulon said as Ozai felt his heart start to race. A letter from Meiko's father? Was something wrong with Asahi? Or Meiko?

He glanced down at it and his eyes skimmed the letter. It was filled with details of Asahi's accomplishments, and Ozai had to admit that even at three, his son seemed to be rather advanced. A surge of pride rushed through him, but he reminded himself that of course, the boy was advanced, he was Ozai's son. Ozai hadn't gone to see his son in a few months, and he hadn't heard from Meiko since his last visit, but that wasn't strange. Their relationship had never recovered from when Meiko was pregnant, and it remained strained and awkward whenever Ozai went to visit.

"He seems like quite the boy," Azulon said.

"He is," Ozai agreed, placing the letter down. "But why is Meiko's father writing to you about my son?"

"He has always kept me updated about the status of my grandson," he revealed.

Ozai felt a surge of annoyance, his father always meddled in his affairs. He never could trust that Ozai knew what he was doing, even with his own son. It almost made him grateful that he and Ursa had yet to have children; he could only imagine how his father would behave with children that lived in the palace.

"I wasn't aware," he replied with a frown.

"Don't get pouty, Ozai, it's unbecoming," Azulon dismissed his son as he took a drink from his glass. "I've been thinking that perhaps, it's time for Meiko and Asahi to return home."

"Come here?" he asked, feeling dumbfounded by his father's sudden change of heart. He had never wanted the world to know about Asahi, he had agreed with Ozai's decision to send them away after he had gotten over his anger that Ozai had gotten her pregnant in the first place. "Are you sure that that's a good idea?"

He knew that Meiko and her family would gladly come back to Caldera City, but Ozai wasn't sure that he wanted the world to know about his son. Especially Ursa. He had managed to keep Meiko and Asahi a secret from his wife and he didn't relish the idea of telling her that he had a son. He knew that it would hurt her, and he didn't want to do that. He didn't care what other people thought about him, but he still cared about what Ursa thought about him.

"I believe that it's the time for him and Meiko to come home. If Ursa isn't going to give you a child then we must change course. Lu Ten is a good and strong boy, and he is going to be a great Fire Lord one day, but I will not risk only one heir. A bastard born son is better than no son."

Ozai was silent. It seemed that his father had already made up his mind and he wasn't sure that there was anything that he could do to convince his father otherwise. He hadn't realized that his and Ursa's lack of children had been weighing on his father's mind so heavily that he was willing to bring Asahi and Meiko back.

"I don't want Ursa to know about Asahi and that he's my son," Ozai stated, sitting up straighter. "It will hurt her. She's rather fragile lately."

"Well, then she should be trying to give you a son a little harder than," Azulon dismissed. "Asahi can be here and get the training that a Prince of the Fire Nation deserves."

"Nobody is going to know he's my son for the time being," Ozai said firmly.

"Fine, fine, we'll figure out the details later. Write to Meiko and tell her to prepare for coming home."


"Your father has been asked to accompany Fire Lord Azulon to the war front in a few weeks," Rina said with a big smile on her face. "That's an incredible honor for him, don't you think?"

"That's great, mother, I'm so happy for him," Ursa said, toying with her hand as she sat at the table.

Rina turned away from the tea that she was making and faced Ursa. "What's wrong?"

"Ozai has been distant lately, I don't know what I've done wrong," Ursa confided in her mother. Rina sighed and carried over the tea tray to the kitchen table.

They were sitting in her mom's kitchen, the younger kids all at the Fire Nation Academy so they were alone for once. It was quiet in the house, a rare occurrence, and one of the reasons why Ursa had wanted to come to visit her mom rather than having her mom come to her. The palace was always bustling and it was rare to get some quiet, even when she was alone in her rooms. Ursa lifted her tea to her lips and took a sip of it as her mom pursed her lips, a look of concern on her face.

"What do you mean by distant?" Rina asked. "Perhaps it's all in your head, darling, he's a busy man, he doesn't have time to dote on you all day long."

Ursa placed her teacup on the table and straightened her back, anger flashing through her eyes. "I don't expect my husband to dote on me, mother," Ursa said firmly. "I just…I don't know. Something is different with him and I think that it's my fault."

"Well, darling, it's been three years, it's normal for marriages to stop being in that honeymoon phase, so to speak."

"It's more than that, though. I can't explain it, it just seems like he can't be bothered with me. I don't know what to do to make it better."

Rina sighed and looked at her daughter. "I'm sure that it's nothing, Ursa."

Ursa suddenly wished that she hadn't come to see her mother after all. She knew that something was off with her husband and her mother could continue to try to convince her otherwise, but Ursa knew what she felt and saw. She often times felt like her mother was more loyal to the wealth that she now had because of Ursa's marriage rather than being loyal to her. She was used to it at this point, but it still hurt, especially when she wanted advice from her mom.

Deep down, she knew that the distance between herself and Ozai was their lack of children. Ursa felt a deep physical ache in her chest whenever she thought about it. Since losing their first son, she had lost three more children, and each time, it had destroyed her even more. She desperately wanted to be a mother and to have a child, but it had been three years and so many losses that she was starting to lose hope. Ozai had never said anything to her and had always supported her after another loss, but she knew, deep down, that he might not always be as supportive.

"I think that I'm going to go," Ursa finally said.

"Ursa, please," Rina said. "Don't be so dramatic."

"I'm not being dramatic! I came here for your advice and you're just telling me that it's all in my head. It's not in my head, I know that things have been tense and it's not helping that you keep saying that it's in my head."

Rina sighed and looked at her daughter. "I'm sorry that you feel that way. I didn't mean to make you feel like that, but I was trying to make you see that all marriages have their rough patches and to not worry about it."

It wasn't a real apology, but Ursa lifted her teacup to her mouth. It wasn't surprising, Ursa knew her mom well. She wanted to leave and go home, but she knew that if she did, her mom was going to harp on this for the next few weeks and she wasn't interested in dealing with it. She put the teacup back down on the table and looked at her mom.

"Let's just change the subject," Ursa decided. "How is Mura doing?"

"She's good," Rina said with a smile. "We were thinking that perhaps there's something that she can do at court soon?"

Ursa nodded her head. "I'll try to think of something," Ursa replied. Of course, her mother wanted her to do more for the family, but she loved her younger sister and it would be nice to get to spend more time with her.

"She would really love that. Now that she's done with school she doesn't really know what she wants to do and the experience would be good."

"I'll try to find something for her." Ursa had been married not long after she was finished with school but she could remember feeling a little lost afterward.

"Thank you, darling."


Meiko stood outside and watched as Asahi ran around with some of the neighborhood kids. For a while, she had been uncomfortable with the idea of her son playing with some of the Earth Kingdom children, but she had eventually realized that she didn't have much of a choice in playmates for her son and she couldn't be so picky. It still made her angry that she was raising her son in the colonies, but she was trying to keep her anger to herself and not impact her son. If he was going to raise her son there, she wanted him to be happy and not realize what he was losing out on by living in the colonies.

She heard a messenger hawk and looked up, watching as it came down towards her. She expected that it was a letter for her father, but when she took the scroll off the hawk's leg, she saw her name. She skimmed down the letter and felt her heart start to pound. Ozai wanted her to return home with their son and was sending a ship soon. She was getting out of here.

She had never allowed herself to dream of returning back home to the Fire Nation, she had been sure that Ozai would keep them here, away from his precious wife. She had resigned herself to raising her son in the colonies, knowing that he should be treated as the Prince that he was, but never allowing him to know the truth to protect him. But Ozai wanted them home. She had to wonder if things weren't well with his wife and he had finally decided to kick her to the curb. But regardless of the reasons, she was ready to go back home and for her son to finally get the acknowledgment that he deserved.

"Asahi! Come!" She shouted and watched as her son came over to her. She leaned down and scooped him up in her arms and turned and walked back into the house, shutting the door behind her.

Author's Note: Happy New Year to all of my readers. This month has truly felt like an entire year, and I'm sorry that I didn't get a chapter up earlier this month. It has been a wild month, but I have been doing a lot of thinking about where I want this fic to go and I finally think that I'm happy with where it's going and I'm feeling excited again. I hope that you liked this chapter and I will see you in the next one!